Too much water/rain on new lawn

Shannon – posted 31 January 2005 11:45

I moved into a new house back in Dec (04), the lawn was sodded with St. Augustine grass back in Oct (04). I have a concern about the lawn receiving too much water/rain. The area we live in has received record amounts of rain. Since we have been in the house the lawn has only had one chance to dry out (water not standing in low areas). We have been receiving about 2 to 3 inches of rain a week. We also have areas in the back yard that water pools (1-2 inches deep), because the amount of rain. The pools of water remain on the lawn for 3-4 days at a time.

The question I have is this bad for the new lawn?

Can this cause a large die off in the spring?

What can I do if anything?

Any other suggestions of comments are welcome. Thank You Shannon

mikemaas00 – posted 01 February 2005 09:08

Where do u live, Shannon? Look out for fungus when the temps warm back up. If you start to see circular patches or cobwebs in your lawn this spring, take care of it immediately. You might want to apply a preventative fungicide, but I would make sure your grass is gonna live thru the flooding before you spend money on that. Not a big fan of sodding in the fall for reasons like you are describing. It’s hard for a warm season grass to repair itself from winter damage when its dormant. Not much you can do about all the rain, just don’t add to the problem by turning your sprinkler system on. Just shut your water off and hope for the best this spring.

ted – posted 01 February 2005 18:29

i’m more concerned about the lawn being sodded with st. aug. going into the potentially damaging winter months. i would have waited until spring on the sodding. sounds like you’ve got more of a drainage problem than a turf management problem.

Ross Page – posted 07 February 2005 15:46

I agree with Ted. I think youve got problems with your soil profile. If the water is staying for a few days then you may have a perched water table or your soil is very compacted and the water cannot move through the profile. One way of testing compaction is to see how difficult it is to put a garden fork into the soil. If it is tough then the soil may be generally compacted. If it is relatively easy then you may have a pan in your soil profile.You can solve this by either putting in a drainage system or cultivating your soil.